Countdown to Hogmanay: the cleaning is pretty much done. The grocery list is prepared for errands tomorrow. The candle gardening is even done! And Kyle has completed our personal Hogmanay Music cd for this year—complete with a cool jacket cover created from a photo he took on our last trip to Scotland! He’s outdone himself with this one. It’s been a long, full day of work, work, work—and little rest for the weary. It is nearly two a.m. and I’m still going strong. But, the house is just about ready for a wonderful invasion of our friends for Hogmanay.

My photo is of some of the contents of a lovely little early twentieth century bar buffet I bought for Kyle a number of years ago. It’s a sweet little piece that makes one think of 1940s cocktail parties. As you pull open the front, it drops down and the top simultaneously raises up, as the light comes on. It’s lined in mirrors and is a joy to use. In it, we keep some of our prettiest highball glasses, the stir sticks and jiggers and various bar supplies one needs for mixing drinks. And down below, there’s a cabinet for liquour! The glass front and center in the photo is, appropriately enough for Hogmanay eve, a glass etched with the Declaration of Scottish Independence.

As I’m preparing for what we’re calling our final Hogmanay Party, I am reminded of how many wonderful friends we are going to get to see tomorrow night. I’m also reminded of all the ones who will not be with us. We have received regrets from so many that I will sorely miss. And there are a number of folks who would be here if they didn’t live so far away! And, of course there’s the normal shifting of friendships resulting in the fact that many of our friends who attended our first New Year’s Eve Party fifteen years ago, aren’t even really on our radar so much any more. And I miss my friend and “forever-ex,” Roger, especially at this time of year. He never missed a party here.

But, life goes on, and we will gather together with thirty or forty dear, dear friends tomorrow night. We will raise a toast to those who are elsewhere, and we’ll drink to the new year–destined to be full of love and adventure.